Guest guest Posted April 11, 2007 Report Share Posted April 11, 2007 ""King Janaka used to gather many rishis in his palace and take delight in discussing with them about spiritual problems; he was a great adept at sadhana and he attained the highest stage of samadhi through Raja yoga. One day, while in the midst of the court, with the Queen and the maids, even while he was conversing with them, he fell asleep. He had a dream. He dreamt that he was deprived of his kingdom, that he was roaming half-mad, hungry and deserted in the jungle, begging for food from whoever he met, that he came upon some men washing dishes and vessels after a feast which they had shared, that he ran towards them seeking some crumbs, that they gave him some little quantity of rice scraped from the vessels, that he was about to put it into his mouth when a big bird flew in and swooped it out of his grasp; so, he yelled in pain and grief, and the Queen heard it and she woke him up. Of course, when he woke, he knew he was the King. He remembered that a second previously, he was a beggar. He questioned within himself, which is real, this or that? To every one who inquired what the matter was, he put the same question. "Am I a king or a beggar?" The queen and others were frightened at this behaviour; they sent for the ministers and with them came, Ashtavakra, the preceptor. He discovered the situation as soon as he saw the King; so, to the question that the King put him, he answered, "Raja! This is unreal; that is unreal; you, who experienced this as well as that, you alone are real." The waking stage is real until the sleeping stage; the sleeping stage is real, until the waking stage. But, both are unreal, because one cancels the other.""I just read this story and could understand everything except that one question keeps bothering me....How can we explain the continuity of the waking state and the discontinuity of the dream state... if both are as unreal as the other, then how is it that life is continuous when we wake up every morning... also in the dream state we do not continue our dream we had the previous night.... please help me understand this..LOVE, KARTIK IYER No need to miss a message. Get email on-the-go with Mail for Mobile. Get started. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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